Developing The Leader Within You | Thursday, January 25, 2007 @12:05 PM
Book 24: Developing The Leader Within You
Author: John C. Maxwell
Recommended For: Past, Present and Future Leaders
Reviewer: Noi
This book was sitting on my bookshelves for months and it is only now that I finally get to read it. Before this book, I read another book by the same author and it completely blew me away. So even before I start reading this book, I had high expectations.
I was not denied.
I highly recommend this book for everyone who aspires to become leaders. This book gave the definition, what it really takes to be a leader. It is actually a compilation of what characters must a leader have before being a true leader. Some example that I can show you are as follows:
Definition of leadership: Influence
Key to leadership: Priorities
Most important ingredient id leadership: Integrity
Ultimate test of leadership: Creating a Positive Change
Quickest way to gain leadership: Problem Solving
The extra plus in leadership: Attitude
Developing your most appreciable asset: People
Indispensable quality of leadership: Vision
Price tag of leadership: Self Discipline
Most important lesson of leadership: Staff Development
The first few chapters touched me especially the part about influence. Influence and come both ways. Good and bad. I hope that I never influence anyone negatively, so if I had to you, please forgive me. This chapter states that a leader is great, not because of his or her power, but because of his or her ability to empower others.
Another chapter that I love was the chapter on integrity. Before this, I was not sure of what integrity means. A person with integrity in one who has established a system of values against which all of life is judged. People with integrity have nothing to hide and nothing to fear about. Their lives are open book.
I am working on being a better leader not just for myself, but more importantly for the team. This book taught me so much and I wish I had not done some of the mistakes I did in the past. Nevertheless, it is human nature to make mistakes but more importantly, one must learn from that mistakes made so that it will not be repeated again in the future.
Two thumbs up and if I can raise my toes, I would! John C. Maxell never fails to disappoints!
The Earth, My Butt and Other Round Things | Saturday, January 20, 2007 @12:36 PM
Book 23: The Earth, My Butt and Other Round Things
Author: Carolyn Mackler
Recommended For: Everyone who thinks that life is not picture perfect
Reviewer: Etsu
Oh here I go again. Another impulse buy. I am pretty sure that the authors are rich because of people like me. People who buy a book because of the beautiful cover and the great synopsis of the story that they have at the back of the book.
This book is about Virginia, who is fat and less that perfect. The story revolved around Virginia and her family and friends. Lets face it. Being fat has certain rules like do not try to be popular or well likes. Virginia had created a Fat Girl Code of Conduct, a system by which she has no choice but to follow as long as she is fat. What makes matters worse is her parents are very successful in their careers and her elder brother and sister almost seemed like the perfect son and daughter.
Almost.
As you read this story, you feel like Virginia, 16 years old, low self esteem thanks to being fat and ugly. This story also reveals the superficial world that we live in, where looks does matter. You will see situations from Virginia’s point of view, being at a disadvantage because of her looks but nonetheless, still wants the same things in life as the rest of the girl population. There were times I could relate to Virginia, having no idea who she really is, but trying her best to fit in. There were also some occasional rebellious moments.
Some interesting characters from the book include her crush, Froggy and her friends, also less than perfect. It is sad to sometimes think about how we live our life based on how others want to think we are. Being judgmental somehow feels like it is natural and that we are all born with it. Its like, we know its wrong, but we still do it anyway.
Everyone will go through life feeling that they are less than perfect. There will always be something that we want to change about ourselves. It is natural. However, we should not forget that success and happiness also fall onto people who are less than perfect. It is not a fairy tale. It is a possible reality. This book is such a story.
I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did. I only took 5 days to finish the book. A simple story, but extremely touching.
Cyber Cinderella | Friday, January 19, 2007 @11:46 AM
Book 22: Cyber CinderellaAuthor: Christina Hopkinson
Recommended For: All those who googled their own nameReviewer: Etsu
I saw this book online and I thought what an interesting storyline is has! So when I finally saw it in a bookstore, I bought it without much thought because to me, it has a really good and strong storyline.
This story is about Izobel, a girl who discovered a website dedicated to her. She had no idea who did the website and the best part was, the website made her looked like star! The truth was, her life sucked but the website showcased a successful her, who does not exist.
So the book sees her discovering the site, trying to find out who created the website. It then continued with her obsession in finding the creator. In her pursuit to find the mysterious site owner, she ignores her real life and end up failing at her relationship and work.
I do not know whether it is me but I cannot seem to understand the jokes that the author included. I find myself having a hard time understanding scenarios and am often left wondering if the author was writing a fact or simply writing jokes happening in Izobels mind.
I really thought I would like this book a lot considering the fact that I have googled my own name before. I thought I could relate to the character Izobel but the author seemed to me like she is trying a little too hard to amuse her readers. Nevertheless, I still think that it has a strong plot, and it can be a hit maybe if it is turned in a teenage movie even though the main character is not in her teens.
What I liked most about this book is what was located at the end of the book where the author, this time, smartly included 5 reasons why googling your own name is a bad idea. The reasons are:
1. It is like reading someone elses diary.
2. The shame of looking yourself up and finding that you are not on it at all.
3. Your discovery that an ex has put pictures of you up on the web.
4. You find other people with your same name that are much more exciting than you are.
5. Googling leaves a trail of technological slime easily followed.
I shall not go into details but the author proves her point that googling your name is a bad idea. Even so, I still went on to googled my name. I discovered a few things:
1. There is a company that is called by my name.
2. There is famous singer in Indonesia with the same name as me.
3. No one has gossip or said anything bad about me in their blogs.
I am a little disappointed by number (3)! Haha!
This site was created by Etsu and Noi,self proclaimed bookworms. We have created this site to share what we have learn from books. We only review positive books that we feel can help the individual reading it. Each book that we review consist of our own opinions. We do not represent any book, author or publishing companies. Feel free to leave your comments or recommended any great links of books site or authors site.
